The Sleeper Awakens
by JA Baker
Summary: A man with a past and on the run from the Alliance hitches a ride on Serenity, but his very presence seems unusually upsetting for River... Firefly/Doctor Who
1. The Good Captain

_As ever, all belongs to someone with a lot more money than I have.  
__Spoilers for seasons 4 of _Doctor Who_, 2 of _Torchwood_ and the events in the movie _Serenity_.  
__I will be using events from all parts of the _Firefly_ 'verse in this story, including the comics, but that's because there is limited canon to work with.  
__With thanks to jpdt19 for beta-reading it for me and fixing some of my grammar to help it flow._

**The Sleeper Awakens  
****Part 1: The Good Captain**

Persephone had changed a lot over the years, but thankfully the Eavesdown Docks were still as disreputable as ever. He needed that, cash-in-hand and no-questions-asked. What he really needed was a ship headed out from the Core, out to the border planets. Out there the Alliance's grip was weakening, following the recent revelations about their ill fated experiment on Miranda. It was this sudden and unexpected upheaval that had given him the chance he needed to escape from the Alliance research center and make a run for it. All he needed to do was get back to Woodstock; he had a ship stashed there with a working hyper-drive, assuming that no one had found it in the years he'd been away.

It had been twenty, maybe thirty years since he'd found this system and decided to stay a while. He was still technically a Torchwood operative, but he hadn't seen a pay check in a hundred years. Still, they had a way of finding him when they needed use of his 'special' talents. It seemed however that this one system, so far off the beaten track yet teaming with life, was the one place he'd found in all of time and space where neither Torchwood nor the Time Commission was willing to follow him. Evidently there were some secrets that even they wanted kept hidden.

He looked at the line of waiting ships, first working out which were headed in the general direction of Woodstock, then ignoring the two that looked a little too clean and respectable. He stopped dead when he saw the next: a _Firefly_ class transport, the kind of ship that would fly forever if the mechanic knew what they were doing. He'd spent a lot of time on _Firefly's_ over the years, and had grown quite fond of them. Smugglers and other disreputable people liked them for their unobtrusive demeanour and dozens of hard to find hiding places that could easily be over looked by someone who didn't know what they were looking for. That was exactly what he needed: a ship that wouldn't warrant a second glance at most customs stations, if it ever decided to pass through one. He looked up at the nose and felt a momentary chill run down his spine as he read the name: _Serenity_.

It had been a while since he'd heard that name, but his memories of the past few years were so jumbled and unfocused that he couldn't say for sure how long it had been exactly. All he knew was that the Alliance knew he couldn't die, and wanted to find out how and why. The fact that he wouldn't stay dead only meant that they could cut on him and hurt him as much as they liked, sometimes just to see how much he could take. He hadn't broken, he was sure of that. He wasn't sure how; maybe he'd been through so much already that there was nothing left that they could do to him.

Serenity, that's where nightmare had started, The Battle of Serenity Valley on Hera. The Alliance had come rushing in like a tidal wave, only to break against the Independents defences. That had been one of the proudest moments of his life: holding out against the full might of the Alliance for seven weeks, two longer than High Command had managed before surrendering. He hadn't been there at the end: the Alliance had seen what he could do and managed to grab him and get him off planet before the white flags had been shown, but they had been kind enough to inform him during one of his more lucid moments. They'd even shown him photos taken from orbit; soldiers, Browncoats and Purplebellies alike, still dying while their leaders hammered out the terms of the surrender. The bastards had even laughed, joking that you didn't have to pay dead troops. They'd wanted to break his spirit, but they didn't fully understand just who they were dealing with.

"Need a hand there, mister?" A cheery voice asked, "We're headed for Dyton Colony."

"I need to get to Woodstock, and that's only a few moons over," he said, as he turned to see who had spoken. It was a young woman. A very attractive young woman, at least underneath the layers of oil-stained cloths she wore. Smiling broadly he instinctively offered his hand.

"Harkness, Jack Harkness," he volunteered.

"Kaylee." The woman, smiling back, took the proffered hand and shook it, "So, Woodstock? Not much out there but a few mines and a couple of ranches."

"I have friends out there who I've not seen in a while." Jack kept his smile warm, not wanting to give away too much, "So, how much for Dyton..." There was the unmistakable click of a pistol being cocked right behind his head. He froze, and felt a hand reach round under his coat and pull free the gun he'd taken from one of the Alliance guards when he'd made his escape out of his waistband.

"You treat all your passengers like this?" He asked with more than a little sarcasm, "Or just the good-looking ones?"

"No, just the dead ones." A familiar voice snapped, "Inside. Kaylee, get the door."

"Captain?" A look of confusion fell upon the young mechanics face, but she hurried to comply while Jack was marched at gunpoint into the middle of the cargo bay.

"That's far enough." The voice commanded, "Zoë, get in here right gorram now!"

"Hi Mal, long time no see." Jack slowly turned round to face his former comrade-in-arms, "Is this how you treat all your former commanding officers?"

"Jack Harkness is dead; I saw him get his head blown off in Serenity Valley." Mal Reynold's voice was cold and hard, matching the look in his eyes, "So why don't you tell me just who the hell you are and why I shouldn't fill you full of holes right now?"

"Well, I'd hate to ruin a good shirt..." Jack smiled, trying to defuse the situation, "You've got a lot of questions, I can understand that, but I don't have the time to answer them right now. I need to get off planet before the Alliance catch up with me, so either take me as far as Dyton or I'll find another ship that will."

"Captain, what in the hell is going on?" Zoë appeared in the hatch that led through to the infirmary, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who else was standing in the cargo bay, "Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng!"

"It's good to see you too, Zoë." Jack smiled at her over his shoulder, "Can't say I'm surprised to see the two of you are still together."

"We're not together." Mal snapped, "Now shall we get back to who you really are, or do we jump right to the filling you with holes part?"

"I'd rather you didn't, if it's all the same with you." Jack slowly lowered his hands, "I know you have no reason to trust me, given what you saw, but it's really me." A cocky a sly smile, "Who else would know what really happened that time you got drunk on Apollo during R&R, or what that tattoo said before you had it removed."

"Tattoo?" Zoë asked, one eyebrow raised, "What tattoo's that, Captain?"

"The tattoo he used to have on his left shoulder." Jack's smile widened to a grin. "The one with the red rose and '_mother_' written below it."

"Son of a..." Mal lowered his gun, "I saw you die."

"The Alliance … did something to me, brought me back." Jack's smile faded, "I guess they can't remember how they did it, as they've spent all the time since trying to work it out."

"The Alliance is after you?" A worried expression flashed across Mal's face, "Kaylee, is everyone back aboard?"

"Yes captain; we were just waiting on you and any passengers." The mechanic nodded slowly, "River said we're ready to go as soon as you give the word."

"Consider it given." Mal re-holstered his gun, but kept a tight grip on the one he had taken from his former CO, "I want some space between us and this planet before the damn Feds come looking for Captain Harkness here."

Kaylee disappeared up the ladder without a word while Zoë crossed the deck to get a better look at Jack.

"You look good, for a dead man," she commented. She was clearly still not sure if she trusted him, and looked to Mal for advice, "What do we do, sir?"

"We go to Dyton, as planned; we've got legit cargo this time, and I don't need some merchant going crying to the Feds because we went AWOL with their goods." Mal didn't take his eyes off of Jack, "As for him, well, that's a whole other kettle of fish; I say we make him have a little sit-down with River once we're in the black and see what she says."

"You sure that's wise?" Zoë asked, "I know she's more stable these days, but still..."

"Way it is is the way it is." Mal shook his head, "I've got a boat load of questions, and that girl's the fastest way of getting truthful answers. Unless you want to have Jayne do the asking?"

"River's a better idea." Zoë agreed, "But what do we do with him till then?"

"Go find the Doc." Mal grabbed Jack by the arm and frog-marched him towards the infirmary, "I want to make sure this really is Jack Harkness."

**

* * *

**

With the exception of a powerful spotlight pointing straight down to the middle of the dais, the room was totally dark, as was befitting a room that did not exist. The men sitting behind the high desks knew each other's dirty little secret, and thus kept them by mutual consent. Entry to the room was strictly controlled, for it was home to the Alliance Special Security Council, the unelected body made up of members of the senate, armed forces and other more shadowy agencies linked to the government. All the plots and counter-plots, all the words whispered and knives in the dark were theirs to unravel and employ as they alone saw fit, far away from the public eye. They were the New World Order, and they were very unhappy.

"Please, explain to us how he managed to escape from our single most secure Research and Development complex?" A voice asked out of the darkness, its owner's identity disguised electronically, "And then managed to elude pursuit and, one mustpresume, manage to escape from Londinium itself."

"Security at the complex had grown complacent and lax." The senior of the two Operatives standing in the middle of the dais kept his eyes locked straight ahead, "The recent political upheaval after the Miranda indecent resulting from the ongoing Tam case created the perfect opportunity for the subject to effect an escape. While we know so little about his true history, it is worth remembering that he is an exceptional fighter and an experienced confidence trickster and thief, all skills that he displayed during his escape. Add to that the rather unique ability that led to his relocation to the research complex in the first place..."

"Yes, we are all very well aware of Mr Harkness' past exploits, and the danger he represents given what he can do." A second distorted voice broke into the conversation, "We will have time to go over it again once he is back in our custody. Until then, our main concern must be his containment and recapture."

"Agreed," the first voice replied, "You have your mission, and our full support. Use whatever means you must to recover Mr Harkness and silence anyone who he has confided in. The government has been shaken, but still stands; we can not risk another Miranda!"

"As you wish." The lead operative bowed his head respectfully, "We shall begin our search at once."

**To Be Continued...**

_Off on holiday soon, so don't expect anything more until I get back._

_Chinese/English translations (with thanks to the Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary):  
__Goram God-damn  
__Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng frog-humping son-of-a-bitch._


	2. More Questions Than Answers

_With ongoing thanks to jpdt19 for beta-reading._

**The Sleeper Awakens  
****Part 2: More Questions Than Answers**

The atmosphere in the infirmary was so thick you would have needed a very shape knife to cut it, but it could have been used as low-grade building material: Jack sat on the examining table, his coat at his side, while Mal and Zoë stood watch at the door; weapons holstered but within easy reach. Every now and then the ship shook slightly, passing through patches of turbulence, as it climbed up through the atmosphere and out into the eternal black embrace of space.

"Guys, this is really unnecessary." Jack looked at the other two with a lop-sided smile, "You know it's me."

"All I know is that you're wanted by the Alliance, and you brought that onto my goram ship!" Mal snapped back, "We've only just gotten out of one run in with them, and lost good people in the process. Now you come along and bring a whole other world of hurt back down on me and mine?"

"We both joined the Independents because we knew it was the right thing to do, because we knew that the Alliance couldn't be trusted," retorted Jack. He shrugged, "Trust me, I've seen what unchallenged power can do to people, the good and the bad. Now I just want out, to go where the Alliance can never follow me, and if you can get me to Woodstock, then that's just what I'll do."

The sound of someone coming down the stairs from the upper deck distracted everyone, and a genuine smile played across Jack's face as Simon walked in.

"Kaylee said you wanted me?" He looked at Mal and Zoë, his eyebrow slightly raised at the sight of a strange man seated on his examination table.

"On second thought, I feel that a full physical is the only way to prove I am who I say I am." Jack cut in, giving the young doctor a suggestive wink, "So, do you need me to tell you about any interestingly placed birthmarks or scars I may have?"

"Ignore him." Mal rolled his eyes, remember what his former CO had been like back during the war, "But do give him a good going over. He says he just escaped from an Alliance prison, and I for one want to be sure he doesn't have a tracking device, or something even nastier on him."

"Like a biological-mantrap?" Simon asked, somewhat surprised, "Those are illegal."

"I would have thought that you would be the last person to think that the Alliance plays by the rules." Zoë's voice was cool and level, "They used them during the war: seeded out wounded with them to take out our field medics."

"Now there's an unpleasant memory." Jack shuddered visibly as images flicked through his mind; he'd seen the affect of more than one mantrap, twice up close and personal.

"Like I said, anything that shouldn't be there." Mal grunted, looking round as if he was expecting to see someone else standing in the doorway, "Soon as she's set course for Dyton, I'm having River give him a full once over."

"I don't like you using my sister like she's some sniffer-dog." Simon complained as he pulled on a pair of latex gloves and started to set the infirmary up, "It's degrading."

"She's as much a part of this crew as you are." Mal countered, "I've lost track of the number of times she's stopped us getting into trouble. Probably the same as the number of times she's gotten us into it..."

His words tailed off, as alerted by some sense he couldn't quite put a name on to the fact that there was someone behind him, he turned to find River frozen in the doorway. The comment that had barely formed in his throat died unspoken when he saw the look of pure revulsion on her face. For a moment he was worried that she was going to throw up all over his feet, but instead she reached out and grabbed the hatch way for support. She looked at Jack, her expression that of a deer stuck in headlight, too terrified to turn and run.

"Wrong!" River almost retched, "Flat-fact, shouldn't exist." Reaching out, she grabbed Mal's gun from its holster and before he could react, eyes clenched shut, pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit Jack clean between the eyes, the soft-lead more than enough to shatter the front of his skull and send him flying over backwards. He landed in a heap on the floor, lifeless eyes staring at River with a slightly resigned look. Mal grabbed the gun back out of River's hand as the young pilot sank to the floor, sobbing.

"Mei-Mei!" Simon was at her side in an instant, "Why did you do that?"

Before she had a chance to answer, there was a shape intake of breath, like a drowning man who had finally broke the surface, and Jack sat bolt upright. The wound in his head started to close, and as the others watched in awe and disbelief, the bullet that had apparently killed him came sliding out and dropped onto the deck plates. Or it would have done, if his hand hadn't come around fast as a rattlesnake and caught it midair. River looked at him with the same look of disgust as before, then fled up the stairs to the upper deck.

"Goram it!" Jack coughed, noticing the way the others were looking at him, "I hate it when that happens..."

**

* * *

**

The room looked like it belonged in a serial killer's worst nightmares: blood and body parts coved the floor, walls and ceiling like a macabre paint-scheme. Some of the meanest, hardened killers on Persephone, men whose names could insight terror all on their own, had died and died badly. Their executioner, her face as devoid of emotions as it had been while she carried out her grim task, stood over the only survivor, her right foot all but cutting off the blood supply to the whimpering mans brain.

"Now then, Mr Badger, I want to make one thing perfectly clear, so that we are all reading from the same page, as it were." The senior of the two Operatives, his clothes spotless, knelt down beside the petty crime-lord, and spoke softly to the choking man, with an odd sort of smile on his face, "I am not a very nice person. In fact, I am about as far from being a nice person as you can be without being a literal psychopath. I have what could be called a certain, _moral flexibility_, when it comes to matters such as hurting people; I take no pleasure in causing others pain, but I likewise suffer no revulsion at the thought. This makes me useful, but the wrong instrument for these situations."

He glanced up, and a genuine warm smile flashed across his face, "My companion here, is, well, she is a psychopath, as you have no doubt come to realize. There's no problem with me saying this with her right here, as she is fully aware of this fact and embraces it whole heartedly, making her the perfect instrument for these situations. In fact, I once saw her stab a man in the heart just to make sure her knife was sharp. So I hope you understand me when I say that killing you would mean less to her than deciding what to have for lunch. The only thing that could possibly save your life, or at least earn you a quick and painless death, is answering my earlier question."

"Never saw the guy." Badger gasped, "But if he wanted off-planet fast, without drawing any Alliance attention, then there's only one ship he could have taken."

"One ship?" The Operative raised a suspicious eyebrow, "That seems awfully helpful, and more than a tad unbelievable."

"It's that damn Miranda broadcast: lot of people on the outer planets are talking, getting angry. Some say there might be another war coming." The gangster explained, "That sort of talk makes a lot of Captain's uneasy: they don't want the Alliance taking over their ships and making them run troops and supplies out to the boarder. That sort of work might be steady and pay well enough, but it gets you a bad rep as a government errand-boy. There's only one Captain crazy enough to stick his fingers up at the Alliance and keep flying wherever he wants; seems to think that they're scared of him or some other gos-so."

"And who, pray tell, would this overly bold Captain be?" The Operative smiled again.

"Malcolm Reynolds; he captains an old _Firefly_ called _Serenity_." Badger answered eagerly, hoping to save his own skin at the expense of others, "Word is he's involved in that Miranda thing: got a lot of people killed, that did. Alliance and, shall we say, 'hard working members of the community'?"

"Thieves and liars the lot, I have no doubt." The Operative stood, "I'm going to let you live: what you say tallies with the information we already have. But I want you to understand that if anything you've told us turns out to me a lie, then you will suffer unimaginable pain for whatever remains of your natural life. You see, I've always found the threat of death, even a slow and painful one, to be a tad empty. After all, the pain and suffering will end with death."

The man paused, as if for dramatic effect, and then continued.

"So if I find out that you have lied to us, then we shall come back and I will cut off your hands, feet, ears, nose and tongue, then pluck out your eyes. Then I'll castrate you, and we shall see just how you like living in a world where you have no way to communicate with the outside world, and everyone who ever looks at you will know the price you paid for your many, many sins. And oh, how you have sinned, Mr Badger."

He looked at his colleague, "You can let him go: we have a ship to catch."

**

* * *

**

"We'll, River's calmed down." Simon made his way down the steps from the upper deck into the small passenger lounge outside the infirmary and sat down on the arm of the chair Kaylee was sitting in, putting a protective arm around his lover's shoulder, "I've never seen her act quite like that: she seemed almost physically ill, even worse than when she senses Reavers."

"And that's a might unsettling." Mal nodded, running his fingers over the scab that had formed on his chin as he thought, "That girls still got her ways and secrets, but she's been a lot better these past few months. Fact is, I was beginning to think she might end up something approaching normal, least by our standards." He looked at Jack, "Anything you want to add?"

"I've an idea why she went crazy like that." Jack was reluctant to continue, but the one look at the ship's captain made it clear that he needed to, "One thing she said stood out amid the rest: she called me a 'fact'. Now I've been called that before, but a long, long time ago, and I don't see how or why she'd do the same."

"Our Little Albatross has a way of seeing into the truth of things." Mal explained, "Truth is, I think she might be a Reader."

"Oh, juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan..." Jack rolled his head back and pressed the palm of his hands against his eyes, "If she's a Reader, then I'm the last person she should be sharing oxygen with: the memories I've got floating around in my head would give a demon nightmares."

"That's not all, now is it." Zoë looked at him with an icy glair that could have stopped charging armies, "She shot you, right between the eyes, and yet here you are."

"That was going to be my next question." Mal nodded, "We say you die, for a second time, and I somehow doubt that this is all because of something the Alliance did to you."

"Yeah, that?" Jack looked around at the rest of the assembled crew, "You got anything stronger than tea around here? Because I think we're all going to need it before the night's through!"

**To Be Continued...**

_Sorry if Jack's flirting with Simon felt a little forced: I don't normally write M/M slash_

_Gos-so – crap  
__Mei-Mei – Little Sister  
__Goram – God-damn  
__Juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan – this is a happy development_


	3. Pieces Of The Puzzle

_With ongoing thanks to jpdt19 for beta-reading._

**The Sleeper Awakens  
****Part 3: Pieces Of The Puzzle**

"Okay, the truth." Jack took a deep swig of the cheap whiskey Jayne had taken from its hiding place and closed his eyes, "My name is Jack Harkness, and I can not die. The now and the why are unimportant, and would probably wouldn't believe me if I told you. Suffice to say that there was an incident a long, long time ago, and I've been like this ever since. I've been shot, stabbed, strangled, poisoned, electrocuted, gassed, buried alive. In fact, if you can think of a way to kill someone, I've been through it."

"That's a lot to take purely on faith." Mal shook his head, unconvinced, "I for one would like the longer version."

"Okay, how about this." Jack took a breath, "We were about 17,500-years in the future, defending Earth from an alien race known as the Darlek's, when I was killed. A woman named Rose Tyler absorbed the raw power of the time-vortex and used it to bring me back to life. But she was only a human, and no human could control that sort of power, so she sort of made a mistake, and now I can't die."

"Excuse me for a second." Simon raised a hand.

"For you, sweet-cheeks, anything." Jack gave him a suggestive smile and wink.

"Okay..." The young doctor moved slightly further away, "You just said that you were almost 20,000-years in the future, protecting Earth-that-was from aliens? Do you actually think we're that naive? Or just stupid?"

"He's telling the truth." River appeared in the doorway, looking slightly more composed than before, but her eyes were bloodshot and she looked like she'd been crying, "Pulled back and forth across time, following the Traveler. The things he's seen...the darkness...The Big, Bad Wolf..."

"Don't...mention that again, please." Jack winced at the painful memory of his first death, "It's not something I'm very comfortable talking about."

"You're a time-traveler?" Mal still sounded unconvinced, "Then why the hell didn't you go back and fix all those mistakes we made during the war? Why didn't you save all those people who got killed following you into battle."

"Against the rules." River spoke up, "Can't interfere once you've become part of the time-line."

"Couldn't have put it better myself." Jack nodded, still visibly affected by what his former comrade had said. "I don't fully understand the whys and wherefores myself, but that's the one immutable rule: you can't change the past, no matter how much you'd like to."

"Then what's the gorram point?" Jayne asked, speaking up for the first time, "What do you do? Just go around and take photos like some Core-worlder out on the verge for the first time?"

"There are, ways, to make sure history goes as it should." Jack scratched his head, trying to find to right words so that everyone could understand what he was trying to say, "There are two times when affecting the course of events are allowed: when you're trying to undo what someone else has done, and when you're caught in what they call a predetermination paradox. What that means is that you change the past, because that's what history says you did. There was a time when I worked for an organization that tried to stop the former, but that was a long, long time ago."

"There is a hole in your mind." River responded in a calm tone of voice.

"Yeah, there is." Jack nodded, "Truth is, I came to this system because it seems to be the one place in the entire galaxy that everyone else seems intent on keeping out of."

"How long have you been here?" Inara asked.

"I arrived here on the _Lewis & Clark_, but I started out on the _Robbert McKenzie_." Jack admitted, "I kept my head down, changed my name a few times, moved about from ship to ship; the _City Of New Orleans_, the _Outbound Light_, the _Endeavor_. I think I spent time on every ship except the _Cerberus_."

"The prison barge?" Simon's eyebrow shot up, then he saw the way the rest of the crew where looking at him, "I used to built models when I was a kid; I had the entire colonization fleet at one time." He looked at River with a faint smile, "Until someone got hold of them..."

"That was almost a hundred years ago!" Kaylee sounded more than a little surprised, "We covered it in school. On one of the days the teacher wasn't too drunk to do anything but sleep that is."

"Just how old are you, Jack?" Mal asked, his arms folded across his chest.

"Truthfully, I'm not sure anymore." Jack shrugged, "I've moved around so much, so many places with different calendars and ideas of what constitutes a year. I could tell you when I was born in Galactic Standard, but that wouldn't mean anything to you."

**

* * *

**

The Alliance strike cruiser _Mauvais Loup_ prowled the depths of space, a sinister black shadow against the stars. Running silent, it was as hard to spot as an honest politician a week after election day, its engines operating at a fraction of their full potential. In this state, the ship was effectively a hole in space, hidden from all but the most powerful and advanced sensors, such as the kind only found on major Alliance space stations.

The senior Operative stood at the back of the bridge, looking at the crew; they were all highly trained and loyal intelligence officers, but none of them could be trusted with the true nature of the mission. That was restricted, classified and compartmentalized; the rest of the crew knew only what they needed to know to complete their mission.

"Excuse me, sir?" The ship's nominal Captain looked round from his command seat in the middle of the cramped bridge, "We've picked up over energy signatures from over a dozen _Firefly_ class transports that left Persephone in the last 48-hours."

"Very good." The Operative reached into his jacket pocked and pulled out a small optical disk, "This contains an emissions read on the ship we're looking for; run a filter to see if you find a match."

"Sir." The Captain nodded as he took the disk and inserted into the main console. The computer beeped as it assimilated the data and compared it to the traces the ships sensors had detected.

The main screen above the front view port lit up, a rainbow of colors indicating each individual signature. One by one they started to blink out, the computer filtering them out until only one remained. A second program ran an independent check, and came up with a near perfect match.

"Emission signature a 95-percent match, Sir." The Captain reported, "Can't get better than that, given how old and dispursed the trail is."

"Is it strong enough to give us a rough heading?" The Operative asked, leaning forward over the nervous officers chair.

"Looks like somewhere in the region of Heinlein; maybe Dyton or Triumph." The Captain looked at a sub-screen, "Depending on how hard her crew were willing to push the engines, and how much fuel they were willing to burn, that's anything from eight to twelve days for a _Firefly_."

"The flight plan they registered said Dyton." The Operative nodded. There was no need for him to give out the information, other than the knowledge that Captains liked to be informed why they were being ordered to such an out of the way moon. "I want us there before they have a change to contact anyone on the ground without using the Cortex."

"That shouldn't be a problem." The Captain brought up a map of the system on the main screen, highlighting and expanding the area between Persephone and Heinlein, "This is their course." A red line appeared on the screen, "The orbital mechanics are okay for an intercept, but they're keeping off the main space lanes, probably to avoid paying way-station tolls. They've also added a couple of days to their journey by staying too far away from Silverhold to get a gravitational boost. That's highly irregular, even for a ship that wants to stay off the official radar."

"I'm sure that they have their reasons, but they are of no concern to us." The Operative stepped back and turned towards the hatch, "Best speed for Dyton colony, and put us into a high orbit when we get there; we don't want to be too deep in the gravity well if they decide to bolt."

"Sir." The Captain nodded, waiting until the Operative was out of the room before turning to the young woman at the helm, "Take us out of orbit then plot us an optimum course for Dyton."

"Taking us out of orbit and plotting optimum course for Dayton." The young Lieutenant repeated the instructions in case there had been any miscommunication, then brought the cruisers engines up from stand-by to one-quarter power, keeping the stealth profile as they started to pull away from Persephone, "Approximate transition time seven days and two hours, sir."

"Very good." The Captain relaxed, once more feeling in command of his ship, "Proceed."

**

* * *

**

"Jack is, unusual, in an interesting way. In fact, I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like him." Inara stood making some tea in the kitchen area, "And that's ignoring his self-proclaimed immortality and ability to travel through time and space, apparently at will."

"He's always been a little, unconventional." Zoë smiled faintly at some of the more pleasant memories from the War, "I mean, he can fight like the devil himself when he needs to, but outside of that, even when things were bad, he always had a joke to lighten the mood."

"And the flirting?" The Companion asked, "Has it always been that bad?"

"Depends upon your point of view; I couldn't imagine him without the flirting." The First Mate handed over two cups, "I don't think Jack even notices something like gender; if he finds someone attractive, he just has to flirt with them."

"Has he ever flirted with you?"

"Once, but I put a stop to it immediately."

"And Mal?"

"That's something you'll have to ask the Captain himself: there are some things I can live without knowing." Zoë smiled as she carried her cup over to the table, "Talking about the Captain and flirting, how are thing between the two of you?"

"Complicated." Inara admitted as she sat down, "I've taken an official sabbatical from the Guild while we try and work things out, but every time we talk, it come right back down to his, unhappiness, with my chosen profession."

"He wants you to stop being a Companion?"

"Yes, and I can see his point of view, even if I don't agree with it. A Companions personal life can and should be kept separate from their work."

"Couldn't you go back to teaching at the Training House?"

"And see Mal on the rare occasions work brought _Serenity_ that way?" Inara thought for a moment, then shook her head, "No, I don't see that working either..."

The sound of voices and footsteps approaching from the hallway ended the conversation before it could go any further.

"I'm just saying, I've been around telepaths before, and it's normally a heredity trait." Jack stepped through the hatch and moved to one side to allow Mal and Simon to pass.

"You think the Doc here might be a Reader too?" The Captain asked, surprised, "I have to disagree, given how bad he was at reading young Kaylee when he first come on-board."

"I just think that it's something that should be looked into, that's all." Jack leaned back against the hatchway, "From a genetics point of view, aside from the X/Y chromosomes, they're a very close match."

"That's... not entirely true." Simon shook his head, then looked round with a pained expression on his face, and his voice dropped to barely a whisper, "God only knows I love River and I'd gladly die for her, but she's not biologically speaking my sister: she was adopted."

**To Be Continued...**


	4. Home Is Where The Truth Is

_With ongoing thanks to jpdt19 for beta-reading.  
__Sorry it's been a while since the last update; I've had writers block._

**The Sleeper Awakens  
****Part 4: ****Home Is Where The Truth Is**

"Okay, spill." Mal stood in the doorway outside the infirmary, a fresh mug of steaming hot coffee in his hands, "You've come over all quiet ever since the Doc disclosed his big family secret. Why?"

"It just threw me, that's all." Jack sat on the couch, rubbing his eyes, "Telepathy isn't that common among humans, not at this point in time. I mean, yeah, there are a few out there, but nothing like River. And I've been around them; most of them can't read me at all; I'm some kind of psychic black hole to them."

"But not River?" Mal nodded, "That girl's always been a might strange; normally something I put down to what the Alliance did to her, but Simons told a few stories about their childhood that makes me wonder" he continued, answering his own question.

"I just wish he knew where she had come from." Jack leaned back and looked up at the ceiling bulkhead, resting his feet on the table, "He's from Osiris, right? Is his family still living there?"

"Yes, and if you're thinking of going there, then you're crazier than River is around goram Reavers!" A dark look came across Mal's face, "The Alliance is after you, which means that they're after us. Now I told you what would happen if you brought that kind of trouble down on me and mine."

"There's something I need to know, Malcolm, something I have to be sure of." Jack sat back up, rubbing his hands together nervously, "I want to believe that River's just a kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I do. But the things I've seen, I've lived through, I can't take the risk."

"The risk of what?" Simon appeared in the other hatchway as if by magic, and the room fell awkwardly silent "No, don't stop on my account: the risk of what?"

"When..." Jack took a deep breath, "When your parents adopted River, what did they tell you had happened to her original family?"

"They'd been on the _Oregon Trail_ when it went down over New Constantinople." Simon wracked his brain to try and drag up the old memory, "They said her parents must have gotten her into an escape pod just before the ship broke up as it entered the atmosphere."

"Good place to hide a fake history." Mal nodded, realizing where Jack's train of thought was headed, and cutting it off at the pass, "Lot of people on a colony ship that big, and only a handful of survives; wouldn't take that much to falsify a report or two, if you knew what you were doing."

"Biggest shipwreck of the prewar years." Jack nodded in agreement, "Was there anything else, anything that came with her?"

"A few blankets." Simon shook his head, then snapped his fingers as a memory flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning, "Wait, there was one thing; a fob-watch, something they said had been found with her..."

Jack sprung to feet and crossed the room so fast he seemed to blur, grabbing Simon by the shirt collar and slamming him up against the bulkhead so hard he knocked the wind out of the young doctor. Mal instinctively reached for his gun, only to realize that he'd left it in his bunk in his quarters.

"The watch; old, slightly tarnished silver case with a pattern made up over overlapping-circles on the case, yes?" Jack asked, a strange edge to his voice, "The sort of thing you wouldn't look at twice, probably forget about most of the time?"

"Yes." Simon nodded, equal parts terrified and confused, "How did you..."

"_Da-shiang bao-tza shr duh lah doo-tze!_" Jack let go of the other man and started to pace back and forth across the room, hands pressed up against the side of his head, "We are in so much trouble it isn't even funny anymore!"

"Why?" Mal asked, feeling like he was several pages behind everyone else in the room, "What's the big deal about some old watch?"

"How many people are there in this system?" Jack asked almost rhetorically, "Seven, eight billion?"

"A little over seven-and-a-half, according to the last census." Simon rubbed his throat, "Why?"

"Imagine them all, every last one of them, dead. Or worse." The was a haunted look in Jack's eyes now, "I want to believe that it's all just some cosmic coincidence, that I'm wrong and that it really is just a watch, and that River is just a kid born at the wrong time in the wrong place, but I can't take that risk."

"I'm not sure I want to ask this, but what if you're right?" Mal asked.

"Then pray; pray harder than you ever have in your entire life." Jack collapsed back down into the armchair, "Because if I'm right, then there are two possibilities; the demon or the angel. And believe me, sometimes it's hard to tell one from the other."

"How can we tell?" Simon asked, "Please, whatever else River may or may not be, she's still my little sister; I have to know if she's in any danger."

"If we're in this, then we're in it to the end." Jack looked at the other two men in turn, "There'll be no room for half-measures or chickening out at the last minute."

"All the way." Simon nodded, a look of resolve on his face.

"Hell, you two are as crazy as each other." Mal frowned, "I'm still not comprehending what's so bad about an old watch" he added stubbornly, becoming increasingly unhappy with the whole situation. Tweaking the nose of the alliance, as the Sheppard used to say, was one thing, this was very different.

Jack glanced at him. "It means the alliance might have been playing around with something older and larger than they can possibly comprehend, something potentially catastrophic."

"Still not comprehending exactly!"

"I don't care" interjected Simon, "she's my sister, if she's in danger, then I'm going, with or without you Mal!"

Mal bit back a silent curse. He had a feeling this was going to prove a _monumentally_ bad idea. He glared at his former CO, trying to make up his mind. He had a feeling Zoë was not going to be happy with him later.

"Ok. You're on my crew, so I'm in." he turned and pointed at Jack, "but I'm holding you responsible for the safety of my crew! Dong Ma!

"Then we have to go to Osiris, just the three of us." Jack lent forward, "There's a possibility, no matter how remote, that your parents might know more than they told you. And I need to make sure that that watch is somewhere I can keep an eye on it until I can get it to someone who might now more."

"And who would that be?" Mal asked, "Come on, you can't hold out on us now."

"A friend." A faint smile played across Jack's face, "One of the few people I truly trust."

**

* * *

**

"Sir, this is not the first time I have had to ask this, but have you been drinking?" Zoë asked as she followed Mal and Jack down the staircase to the living room outside the infirmary, "Osiris is a Core World, full of Alliance forces. Not to mention the fact that we have legitimate cargo to deliver."

"We can find someone else to drop the cargo off for us." Mal shrugged, "It's going to cut our profit margin down from slim to none, but it'll keep the law off our backs for a little while longer."

"I may be able to help there." Jack smiled as he crossed the room and stopped in the hatch leading to the cargo bay, "I set up a couple of blind accounts, years ago, in case I ever needed money fast without using my real name: they're the kind where you only need to know the account number and the password to access. Assuming we can get to a terminal, I should be able to lay my hands on enough cold, hard cash to see this through to the end."

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't appreciated..." Mal stopped dead in his tracks, his head cocked to one side, "Do you guys hear music?"

The three of them made their way into the cargo bay, and stood momentarily stunned at the sight of Simon and Kaylee dance between boxes and crates. Inara and River were sat up on the mid-level walkway, an ancient looking music system between them, the graceful tones of a full orchestra playing Strauss' _Blue Danube Waltz_ filling the air.

"Now that's something you don't see everyday." Zoë commented, perfectly deadpan.

"I'll say." Jack pulled off his jacket and undid the first button on his shirt before stepping forward, "Do you mind if I cut in?"

"Not at all..." Simon started, but was shocked into silence when Jack took his hand and started to lead him around the room in a much closer and risqué fashion. Kaylee couldn't help but laugh at the look of utter shock and borderline terror on her boyfriends face, or the boyish grin on Jack's. There was a likewise amused expression on Inara's face, while River had the same look of equal parts confusion and revulsion she always had when she was in the same room as Jack.

"You stick to the plan; stay in a wide orbit while we tack a shuttle down." Mal spoke in a hushed tone, "Try and act as inconspicuous as possible. If you don't hear from us within 24-hours, or the Alliance starts to take an interest, then you be gone and you stay gone. If there's trouble and we manage to get away from it, we'll find you. Do not come looking for us, no matter what."

"Sir." Zoë nodded, realizing that this was one of the times that there was no point arguing with him, no matter how strong their friendship.

The sound of Kaylee and Inara laughing interrupted them before anything else could be said.

"It's like I always say." Mal turned away with what could have been either a smile or indigestion, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

**

* * *

**

The remainder of the journey to Osiris was thankfully quiet and uneventful, and true to his word, Jack was able to get hold of more than enough money to ship their cargo to Dyton by express shuttle, and still leave a healthy operating reserve. As agreed, Simon, Jack and Mal took one of the shuttles down to the surface, leaving Zoë in command of a slightly worried crew. It had been nerve wrecking, descending down towards a core planet in a slow and utterly defenseless craft, but it drew far less attention than landing _Serenity_ herself would have.

Simon insisted on a short shopping excursion before they proceeded, pointing out that they had to look like they belonged if they wanted to avoid arousing any suspicions. He selected a well made suit and silk shirt for himself, and a pair of much cheaper outfits for his two companions, his reasoning being that anyone who saw them would think that they were just a young man and two hired retainers, possibly bodyguards. Jack had at least managed to get himself a suit and overcoat of similar color and material to his old RAF uniform. It lacked the insignia, and the .45 automatic Mal had lent him lacked the comfortable and reassuring weight and familiar feel of his old Webley Mk. VI.

Leaving the shuttle at a small local airstrip, they took a cab to the outskirts gated community that housed the Tam's estate, and Simon used his family access code to let them in through an automated service bay. Being careful to avoid anyone who might recognize him, he led his two companions up the hill to the house that had been his home for most of his life. Long ago, he had managed to piece together his father's personnel security override code from having seen parts of it entered over the course of many years. Thankfully, it hadn't been changed, and the laser perimeter fence powered down on command, allowing them safe and easy access to the house itself.

Taking one last deep breath, Simon knocked on the door, only hoping that his parents were not entertaining, as they hadn't had the time or opportunity to run any reconnaissance.

"What the Devil..." Gabriel Tam opened the door, one hand holding his rob closed around his body while the other rubbed sleep from his eyes. He stopped dead in his tracks, utterly dumbfounded, when he recognized his son, "Simon?"

"Father." There was a cold smile on the young doctor's face as the family patriarch found himself looking down the barrel of two pistols, "I hope you can understand why this isn't a social visit."

**To Be Continued...**

"_Da-shiang bao-tza shr duh lah doo-tze"_**----**"The explosive diarrhoea of an elephant"


	5. Truth & Recrimination

_With ongoing thanks to jpdt19 for beta-reading and additional help in formatting the story._

**The Sleeper Awakens  
****Part 5: ****Truth & Recrimination**

"Sir, we're reviving a tachyon-enhanced burst transmission from Londinium." The _Mauvais Loup__'s _communications officer reported with a look of puzzlement on her face, "Sender ID is withheld."

"That will be for me." The senior Operative turned to face the nervous officer, "Patch it through to my screen, and engage privacy mode."

There was a snapping sound, followed by a building hum as the complex counter-surveillance system came to life, isolating the Operatives station in an electronically-generated Faraday Cage which formed around him. The screen filled with a mass of numbers that slowly coalesced into a shadowy figure.

"_Your last report worries us._" The council member managed to sound reproachful, despite the electronic distortion hiding their identity, "_The_ _Tam Case is closed and locked at this time, but your investigation is bringing you dangerously close to both siblings. If and when you encounter _Serenity, _you will take no action until Captain Harkness has exited the craft and it has departed_. _Failure to do so will not be tolerated. Remember; you are not above sanction._"

The message ended with a bright flash that indicated that any and all records of it had been removed from the ships computers. Sitting back in his chair, the Operative pondered the content of the message. The so-called '_Tam Case_' was a black mark on the Departments otherwise spotless record, and every Operative longed for the chance to remove it. But he was not foolish enough to go against the Councils wishes: there were other agents who would be more than willing to hunt down an Operative who had proven themselves unreliable. He deactivated the Faraday Cage.

"Keep scanning for any _Firefly_ class transports." He told the officer of the watch as he stood and made his way to the hatch at the rear of the bridge, "I shall be in my quarters if needed."

**

* * *

**

"Move!" Mal barked the order, "Now!"

Gabriel Tam backed away from the door as the two armed men entered the house, followed by his estranged son. Simon felt surprisingly calm as Jack systematically frisked his father, finding a small hold-out laser hidden in the pocket of his robe. Finally satisfied that his prisoner was secure, the former Time Agent pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and secured the older Tam's hands behind his back.

"Through there." Simon pointed at a nearby door, "That's his personal office."

"Simon, what's going..." His father started, but found himself unable to continue as the barrel of Mal's gun filled his mouth.

"The less you say right now, the better for you." The Captain warned, his dark eyes locked on the elder Tam's. "We're here for some answers, that's all. Do not try and say or do anything that changes our minds."

The office the four of them entered was bigger than any room on Serenity bar the cargo bay, with floor to ceiling book cases taking up two walls, while a panoramic window overlooking the landscaped gardens filled a third. A large desk with built in dedicated terminal sat before the window, coved with files and books. Jack pushed Gabriel into a chair and pulled the curtains.

"You guys should wait outside." He warned his two companions, "I can get the answers quicker without you two looking over my shoulder."

"I don't think that's going to be necessary." Simon pulled the leather-backed chair from behind the desk and sat in it for the first time in his life, "Well, this is something I never thought would happen."

"What do you want, Simon?" His father asked, "Money? You know where the safe is..."

"As surprising as this may be, that's not what we're here for." Mal shook his head as he sat on the edge of the desk, gun resting in his lap, "The Doc here told us something interesting the other night about your daughter, something that got my former CO here more than a little hot under the collar."

"The Fob Watch." Jack stood with his arms folded across his chest, "Where is it?"

"What?" Gabriel blinked, unsure what they were asking, "I don't understand."

"When you adopted River, there was a silver fob-watch." Simon explained, "Where is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." His father shook his head, "Look..."

Jack pulled a silencer out of his pocket and started to screw it into the end of his pistol.

"Wrong answer." Mal shrugged, "Trust me, I've seen him in action; you want to start talking before he gets impatient."

"I am impatient." Jack pointed his gun and the chair and fired, the bullet ripping through the fabric covered seat between the prisoner's legs, just an inch away from his crotch.

"_Gao yang jong duh goo yang!_" Gabriel managed to back himself further into the seat, flattening himself against the backrest. "Are you crazy?" he spluttered in fear and outrage.

"It's a distinct possibility." Jack nodded as he aimed a few crucial inches higher, "Now, about the watch, or do you want to be signing soprano for the rest of your life?"

"It was just a watch, nothing important!" Gabriel almost babbled, sweat poring off of his head, "They said that I was to keep an eye on River, and let them know if anything, unusual happens, and to keep her away from the watch at all costs."

"Where is it?" Simon asked, hiding his shock about how far his companions were willing to go.

"There's a secret compartment, in the desk." His father nodded towards one of the legs, "You have to press in the arrowhead there in the side panel, then turn it round so it points down instead of up and press it back in."

"Anything I don't like happens, and I promise you, you'll die slow." Mal warned as he followed the instructions. Before Gabriel Tam, the gleaming tip of the silencer on Jack's gun rose slightly, so that it was aimed threateningly directly at the man's belly. Jack and Mal had seen and heard many a man take hours to die in agony from a gut shot. Even with modern medicine, it was one of the few wounds that were still almost impossible to treat. Gabriel Tam had obviously heard that somewhere too. Swallowing, the older man gripped tightly onto the armrests of his seat, his eyes never leaving the dark hole in the end of the silencer.

Under Mal's fingers the hidden switch moved with ease, and there was a slight _click_ as a hidden draw at the front of the desk popped open an inch, allowing him to pull it all the way out. A black velvet bag sat in the middle, tied at the top with a silver cord. Mal lifted it out carefully and passed it to Jack, training his gun on Gabriel while his former C.O. investigated the the velvet depths. Jack untied the cord, and gently tipped the contents out onto the leather covered surface of the desk. The bright metal glittered slightly as it slid. The silver fob-watch, with its intricate pattern on the case, was just how he remembered it.

"Lao-tyen, boo." He sank into a chair.

"Bad?" Mal asked, taking his eyes of Gabriel momentarily to gaze curiously at the watch.

"Very." Jack sat still, his eyes locked onto the watch as if he expected it to jump up and attack him, "I hate being right all the time."

"What does this mean?" Simon asked, his carefully maintained mask falling away to reveal just how worried he was.

"It means that I have to call in a favor." Jack pulled a small crystal from his picket, "I'm just glad the Alliance never found this." He clenched his fist and crushed the gem to powder, a faint puff of glittering dust escaping.

"What was that?" Mal asked, uneasy at how things were working out.

"The last card I have to play." Jack's shoulders fell as he put the watch back into the bag and pocketed it, "We have to get out of here; I don't know how long we've got."

"Okay, let's move." Mal cocked his towards their prisoner, "What about him?"

"Leave him." Simon shook his head, a look of utter disdain now on his face, "He's nothing."

"Simon, you have to understand that I never thought anything like this would happen." Gabriel pleaded, "Your mother wanted a daughter, but there were complications when she gave birth to you, and they told us that she could never cry another child to term. So when an old friend of mine from the Ministry of Health came to us and offered us River, how could we refuse?"

"River is my sister and your daughter, regardless of how she came into our lives." The young doctor's voice dripped with cold venom, "I can never forgive you or mother for allowing the Alliance to take her. Did you know what they were doing?"

"I..." Gabriel trailed off, his head hung low, "I had my suspicions, but what could I do? If we hadn't agreed, they would have just taken her. I hoped that, maybe if she left of her own free will, then at least you wouldn't have to live with the same guilt your mother and I feel."

"I have no parents." Simon replied his voice flat, like a judgment of sentence. "You're dead to me." With that, he turned and left the room.

"I've killed men for less than what you've done. But then, I have trouble seeing you as a man" Jack said coldly as he calmly undid the handcuffs and dropped the hold-out laser onto the desk before following Simon, pocketing the power pack so that the weapon was just a deadweight. "If we ever meet again, pray you see me first and have time to run."

Mal looked at Gabriel Tam, and saw only a scared, tired old man who'd just seen his life fall apart around him. He raised his gun and pressed it against the older man's forehead, knowing that the other two would never question his decision if he pulled the trigger. But something stopped him, a voice in the back of his head telling him that the broken form before him wasn't worth the waste of a good bullet. Spinning the gun round in his hand, he brought it round as hard as he could, the butt connecting with Gabriel's head hard enough to knock the older man to the floor, out cold.

Re-holstering his pistol, he followed the others.

"Well, what do we do now?" Simon asked as they made their way back to the security gate.

"We get off-world, fast." Mal looked around the night sky, half expecting to see the lights of police patrol ships headed their way, "Family connections and a professed feeling of guilt aside, I somehow doubt that he he'll refrain from calling his 'friend' at the Ministry of Health first chance he gets."

"I agree." Jack nodded, "We should continue on to Woodstock, and no one says anything to River about what we found."

"Are you going to tell us exactly what that watch is?" Mal asked, looking at the pocket in his former comrade's coat that contained the subject of their mission, "Because if it turns out to be nothing more than a watch, then we're going to find out just how impossible to kill you actually are."

**

* * *

**

Kaylee could hear the drumming sound all the way back in the noisy engine room: it seemed to reverberate through the entire hull, and it took her a long time to track down its origin. She had thought at first it was a dodgy cylinder, but the noise had led her gradually forwards and upwards into the crew section.

River was sat at the very front of the cockpit, a blanket from her bed wrapped around her shoulders, as she drummed the same four beat rhythm over and over again with her fingers. Her eyes were wide open, but there was a faraway look on her face as she stared out of the window at Osiris below. Kaylee stood still for a moment, almost afraid to breath; she hadn't seen her friend like this since Miranda, and the idea that she had slipped back into the psychosis was worrying to say the least.

"The angel is dark, yet the demon is bright, bright as the Morning Star." River spoke softly, her expression not changing, "They talk and plot and conspire, but only the hollow man knows the truth behind the words. They're afraid of me; afraid of what I might become."

"Oh, sweetie, no one thinks that." Kaylee knelt down beside her friend and put an arm around her protectively.

"They're right to be afraid." River looked round, and Kaylee felt her blood run cold when she saw the darkness in the young pilots eyes, "The wheel of time turns, and all I can here are the pounding of the drums, calling me to war, and the baying of the big, bad wolf..."

**To Be Continued...**

_Gao yang jong duh goo yang_ = motherless goat of all motherless goats  
_Lao-tyen, boo_ = Oh God, no


	6. The Morningstar

_jpdt19 wasn't able to beta-read this chapter, so thanks to Sayle for stepping in.  
__Sorry for the delay; I was effectively bedridden for a fortnight with a chest infection.  
__And no, before anyone asks, it was not swine flu._

**The Sleeper Awakens  
****Part 6: The ****Morningstar**

The trip back to _Serenity_ was made in near total silence, the three of them talking only when necessary. Simon was almost incandescent with rage, while Mal was more worried than ever that he'd gotten himself and his crew involved in something even more complex and deadly than Miranda. For his part, Jack kept to himself, and never let the fob-watch out of his sight. The rest of the crew had been happy to see them, but River seemed even more withdrawn than usual, a fact that weighed heavily on her brother's mind. Zoë seemed anxious to find out what was going on, but Mel cut her off by ordering _Serenity_ onto a course for Woodstock. Inara tried to south him, but he was wound too tight for even her to get through.

"River was acting all funny while you were away." Kaylee put her arms around Simon and rested her head against his shoulder, "Talking about drums and wolves."

"Not good." Jack looked pale, "She could just be picking up echoes, but that's not a chance I'm willing to take." He shook his head, "No, we get to Woodstock; hopefully my friend will be waiting for us there."

"And the watch**?**" Simon asked, holding Kaylee tight like a drowning man hold onto a life raft, "What is it?

"It's a vessel, used to contain something very powerful and very deadly." Jack explained, struggling to find the right words, "The people who created it, River's people, they were very powerful, but they had enemies who were just as powerful, and deadly. The watch is part of a system used to hide their true nature in the event that they have to hide. It changes the user, rewrites their DNA to make them human; the watch holds the part of them that some would say makes them gods."

"But they're not gods." River's soft voice came from the doorway, startling the two men, "Though some of them would have liked to assume the mantle." She looked Jack in the eye, "If the worse happens, I need to know that I can trust you to do what needs to be done; without hesitation or mercy."

With that she turned and walked away.

"What did she mean?" Kaylee asked, her eyes wide, "She didn't mean...did she?"

"Yes, yes she did." Jack nodded, his expression changed to pure resolve, "If we find the demon rather than the angel, then I'm going to have to do something I'll never forgive myself for."

"You can just, kill, River!" Kaylee looked almost physically ill at the idea, "She's innocent."

"River's innocent, yes." Jack frowned, "But what she could become? No one knows." He shook his head, "We've got nine hours before we reach Woodstock; I suggest that we all try and get some sleep."

**

* * *

**

"We're picking up what looks like a _Firefly_ class transport on the edge of our sensor range." The commander of the _Mauvais Loup_ reported, "No pulse beacon. That's a clear violation of safety regs; we can stop and search them if you like, even shoot them down as potential Reavers. They need never make planet fall."

"No, let them proceed to the surface." The Operative shook his head, "If you would be so good as to follow them down, making sure to keep in their heat-shadow so they don't pick us up, my college and I will getting ready."

"Sir." The Alliance officer nodded, wondering if he'd over stepped the mark. While an Operative held no rank in the military, a single word from the agent would be as good as a death sentence.

The sleek and deadly strike cruiser swung in behind _Serenity_, her helmsman expertly matching the transports approach vector to remain the in the blind spot created by the ships main drive. The heat-shadow would fade once they transferred to atmospheric thrusters, but by then the _Firefly's_ civilian-grade sensors would be blinded by the fires of re-entry. Like its namesake stalking its prey, the _Mauvais Loup_ moved in for the kill.

**

* * *

**

"Over here." Jack pointed out a range of hiss on the ships main navigation screen, "There's a large but well hidden cave on some land I own under an assumed name; that's where my ship's hidden."

"And your friend?" Mal asked, "The one you called?"

"They could be waiting for us, or we may have to stay ground-side for a couple of days." Jack shrugged, "It's hard to tell when you're dealing with time travellers."

"I'm still having a hard time accepting that." Zoë shook her head, "I can accept that River's a reader, and that you seemingly can't die, because of what I've seen, but time travel?" She turned and walked away, "I'm sorry, but that's just so much _luh-suh_ as far as I'm concerned."

"Zoë..." Jack went to follow her, but Mal stopped him.

"She's got a lot on her mind right now." He shook his head, "It would have been her wedding anniversary in a few days, and it's hitting her kind of hard."

"I get where's she's coming from." Jack nodded, a deep sadness in his eyes, "One downside of immortality is that you see everyone you care about grow old and die before your eyes. Those that have a chance to grow old, that is." He shook himself, pushing the memories back down into the depths of his mind, where they belonged, "We'll have to land some way from the cave; the only way I could keep the area protected for so long was to make it a nature preserve, and the local Alliance station will send a patrol out if we land in the middle of it."

"We'll take the Mule." Mal agreed, "I'll have Jayne get it ready."

**

* * *

**

"She's my sister, and I'm going with you." Simon stood his ground, unflinching beneath Mal's gaze, "I'm already trusting your possibly insane former commanding officer further than I feel happy, but if you're taking River, then I'm going along too."

"Fine." Mal gave up, admitting to himself that the young doctor had a point, "And if it makes you feel any better, I think we're all crazy."

"I don't." Simon turned and climbed into the Mule, "Even if I agree with you."

Appearing out of one of her hiding places River dropped down into the seat beside her brother as Jack made his way down from the upper deck, his blue coat pulled tightly around his shoulders against the cold wind that was blowing in through the open cargo-bay hatch.

"I've told Zoë to keep her head down." He told Mal as he reached the deck, "The last thing we need is to draw any Alliance attention."

"Agreed." The captain nodded as he climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine, the nimble hover craft kicking up a cloud of dust as it made its way out of the cargo bay and across the green meadow _Serenity_ had landed in.

River sensed the strike team from the _Mauvais Loup_, the minds of the two Operatives dark shadows on the horizon, but she kept quiet; a voice in the back of her mind was telling her that all was as it should be, and that alerting the others would not change anything, just put their lives in even more danger. As it was she predicted only a fifty-percent chance that both Mal and Simon would make it back to _Serenity_ alive, but leading the Alliance away from the ship improved the odds of Zoë, Jayne, Kaylee, Inara and the life growing even now inside Zoë surviving to almost ninety-percent.

Her own odds of survival, however, were incalculable.

**

* * *

**

"They're entering a box-canyon." The pilot of the small Alliance skiff reported, "No way that old crate of theirs will be able to make it over those hills with four people on-board."

"Good." The Operative nodded, "Set us down just outside and have your people secure the entrance; I don't want anyone slipping away to warn their friends on the ship. But no one is to use deadly force without my express order. Is that clear?"

"Sir!" The assault team responded as one, their faces hidden behind the black visors of their combat helmets. Each was armed with a sonic rifle, a weapon that could both stun and kill, depending on the setting, and a laser pistol. They were among the best troops the Alliance had to offer, better trained and equipped than the more numerous Federal Militia, but nowhere near the level of an Operative.

**

* * *

**

"Over there." Jack pointed to a grove of young oaks on a nearby hillside, "The entrance to the cave is behind those trees."

Mal nodded and brought the Mule to a stop and landed it just short of the trees, the high-pitched whine of the engines slowly dying away to leave them in near total silence. Jack led the way to the mouth of the hidden cave, the powerful flashlights they carried casting bright cones of light in the otherwise total darkness. He stopped beside a door that was marked with various warning signs claiming the area beyond was unstable, and checked the combination lock to make sure that it had not been tampered with. Once he was sure, he opened the door and another short passage led them to a large but seemingly empty cavern.

"I can't help but feel slightly underwhelmed." Simon lamented sarcastically, "I was expecting... something."

"I don't understand..." Jack stood dumbfounded, "I left it right here, in full security lock down. There's no way anyone could have overridden it!"

"Yeah, sure, you betcha!" Mal nodded, his hand moving down towards his holstered pistol, "Any other bright ideas? Or should we keep looking for the invisible spaceship?"

"The Alliance must have taken it." Jack stormed back out of the cave, not stopping until he stood beside the Mule, "That's the only explanation."

"Well, you could have been driven mad by whatever the Alliance did to you." Mal had his hand resting on the butt of his gun, "Can't say I'd blame you for being a little _fong luh_..."

"_Tsway-niou!_" Jack protested, "I've been crazy, on more than one occasion, and believe me when I say I know the difference."

"It's time." River looked round, her eyes cold and emotionless, "If you're going to give me the watch, you need to do it now."

Jack stood still for a moment, looking intently at River, then slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out the velvet bag. His gaze moved to it as he carefully slipped the contents out into the palm of his other hand; the slightly tarnished silver casing reflected the bright sunlight. Mal and Simon held their breath, wondering if they were about to see some elaborate charade fall down around them.

"Jack Harkness, you are hereby bound by law to stand down!" A voice called out, and the four of them span round to see the two Operatives standing in the open, the senior of the two holding a bullhorn. Jack was so surprised that he failed to notice River taking the fob-watch and hiding it behind her back. "You've no place left to run; we have you all covered. Give yourself up, and your friends are free to go."

"Well, that's mighty nice of you." Mal called back, cupping his hands around his mouth, "But why in the hell should I trust an Alliance errand boy like you?"

"We have no interest in you or the Tams, Captain Reynolds." The Operative made a gesture with one hand, and the strike team moved into the open, their weapons up and at the ready, "But if you force my hand, I would be more than willing to take care of some unfinished business..."

An almost deafening roar filled the air as a decidedly, almost predatory looking ship appeared from behind the hill that held the cave, gun-turrets on its nose and wing-tips tracking the Alliance strike team as they pointed their rifles up at it defensively, even if it was clear that they wouldn't stand a chance.

"_This is Captain Smith of the Torchwood Institute starship_ Asimov." A voice boomed out at them, echoing off of the hills, "_All Alliance forces will vacate the area immediately, or we will open fire._"

There was a moment where no one seemed to know just what to do next, and the faint click of the fob-watch opening in River's hand was lost amid the sound of the hovering ship's engines. A soft yet brilliant light shone forth from the watch, enveloping River's face, and dusty voices spoke to her in strange, inhuman languages. It seemed to flow around her, enveloping her in a corona of light and sound, outshining the sun, forcing everyone else to shield their eyes.

"_**NO!**_" Jack cried out, realizing that it was too late to stop what had happened.

Simon heard him, and looked round just in time to see the light fade, revealing River, seemingly unchanged. She slowly turned round, her eyes burning with righteous anger and something far older and darker than anyone her age should ever have lurking in the back of her mind. It was a look that could stop an army, turn back the tide, or freeze the very gates of Hell itself solid.

**To Be Continued...**

_Luh-suh_ = garbage  
_Fong luh_ = loopy in the head  
_Tsway-niou_ = bull-crap


	7. Daybreak

_My thanks again to Sayle for beta-reading_

**The Sleeper Awakens  
****Part 7: ****Daybreak**

Silence filled the box canyon, broken only by the low hum of the _Asimov's_ gravimetric drive.

"_**YOU!**_" River's voice echoed around the valley as she marched towards the two shocked Operatives and with the cold inevitability of an advancing glacier, "You sought to control me? To control what I am? _**DID YOU REALLY THINK IT WOULD BE THAT EASY?**_"

Long gone was the frightened little girl, and in her place stood a vengeful goddess with the untamed rage of a race that had bent the universe to their bidding through sheer force of will. The Operatives back up until they found their backs pressed up against a large, moss-covered bolder. Feeling trapped, the female Operative made her move and jumped at River, her full weight behind the attack. But River had already moved out of the way, and caught the flying woman with one arm and spun her round into an arm-lock before propelling her back towards the other agent, who caught her and held her close, protectively. Leaning in close, Rive could hear their heats beating loud and fast in their chest, like an insane drummer pounding away for all they were worth.

"Go tell you masters that I remember everything: all that I am, and all that I can do." She ordered, her tone of voice cold and hard, "My people could stop planets spinning and restart suns! I will be watching them, and if anything ever happens to my friends then they will know my anger, my wrath!"

Time seemed to stop for a moment as Mal's mind raced. He could see the Alliance strike team ready to open fire at a moments notice, and there was no where to hide in the open valley. The strange ship hung above them like the Sword of Damocles, ready to strike down any who opposed its will. Simon looked torn between his desire to protect his sister, and his instincts that screamed at him to find somewhere safe to curl up into a ball and hide away from the universe. But it was the expression on Jack's face that caught his attention. The former rebel captain's face had turned almost grey, and there was a look in his eyes that said he'd seen this all before, and it hadn't ended well. Mal knew that all it would take was one misspoken word, one misinterpreted gesture, and the slaughter would begin.

And yet amid this River stood like a mountain before the sea, unyielding to the elements and as eternal as the stars themselves. Mal watched as the two Operatives withered under her gaze like a moth before a flame. For all their terrible power and authority, they had been brought low by a woman barely out of her teens.

"Okay," The senior Operative swallowed hard, his voice barely above a whisper, "let's go."

As one the strike team slowly melted back into the trees, their weapons at the ready but not pointed at any in particular. The guns on the _Asimov_ tracked them until they were out of sight.

"River." Simon slowly walked towards the woman who had once been his little sister, "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, Simon." River looked back over her shoulder and smiled warmly, the darkness in her eyes replaced with the bright hope of a newly dawned day, "I really think I am."

There was a flash of light that momentarily connected the _Asimov_ and the ground, and when it faded it left behind a young, blond haired woman dressed in a khaki-green t-shirt and matching cargo pants. There was a large pistol strapped to her right hip, and a large rifle hung over her shoulder.

"Wait here." Jack ordered, then walked over to the new arrive, leaving Mal with nothing but questions. "Excuse me, but '_Captain Smith_'?" He stood, hands on hips, and glared at the woman, "You're no more a Captain than I am these days. And if that is a Torchwood ship, where are the rest of the crew?"

"Probably still back on Earth." The woman admitted somewhat sheepishly, "Well, they wouldn't have let me borrow it if they'd still been on board..."

"Borrowing implies you intend to give it back." Jack shook his head, but couldn't hide his own amusement, "The word I believe you were looking for is _steal_."

"Something I picked up from you, obviously." The woman chuckled, leapt up and wrapped her arms around the much taller man neck, "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to be seen." Jack returned the hug, spinning her round so fast her legs flailed outwards, "It's been too long."

"So, what's so important that you called me here?" The stranger asked, her expression suddenly serious as she dropped back down to the ground, "I know you well enough by now to know that you wouldn't have activated that beacon without good reason."

"That's where it gets complicated." Jack put an arm around her shoulder and led her back towards the others, "Guys, this is Jenny; the old friend I told you about."

"Jenny?" Mal asked, "Just 'Jenny'?"

"Only name anyone ever gave me." The woman smiled sweetly, "That said, given what my dad was lumbered with, I think I got off lightly."

"Cut her some slack, okay?" Jack insisted, "Jenny's the only person in this 'verse I trust without question. And given my opinion of her father, that's saying a lot."

"You can't keep blaming him." Jenny frowned, "You know he had no choice..."

"That doesn't change what he did." Jack shook his head, his eyes closed, "Or what he didn't do."

"Just think about it, okay?" Jenny's shoulders slumped, "For me?"

"For you, My Lady, anything." Jack nodded with a faint smile, "You know I can never refuse you. After all, someone's got to watch your back."

"Hey!" Jenny punched him on the shoulder, "He may not be the best dad, but he's the only one I've got."

"Excuse me." Simon interrupted, River following close behind, "What has this to do with, well, anything that's happened over the last couple of days."

"River's not human, not any more." Jack explained, "In fact, she wasn't human to start with."

"I'm like her." River looked at Jenny and felt a kindred spirit, "A child of Gallifrey."

"Really?" Jenny blinked, taken aback. She looked deep into River's eyes, and saw the wheel of time slowly turning, "Then I think we should go back to your ship so we can talk..."

**

* * *

**

"What's taking so long?" Simon paced back and forth like a caged tiger, "What are they talking about?"

"River's, changed; she's not your little sister any more." Jack shrugged, lying back on the beat-up old sofa in the lounge area, "The fob-watch is part of a device called a Chameleon Arch; it rewrites DNA and changes memories, creating a complete false history. They were created by a race known as the Time Lords as a defence against their enemies, the idea being that they could hide in plain sight, and not even a psychic could find them. I've only ever seen it in action once before, and it wasn't a pleasant experience."

"You trying to tell me that River isn't human?" Mal asked, still finding it hard to believe anything he'd seen or been told, "Because that's just stupid. I've seen her as nature intended, and she looked perfectly normal to me."

"She would: Gallifreyan's are physically almost indistinguishable from humans, on the outside anyway." Jack explained, "But inside, well, as the young doctor there will tell you, no human has twenty-five ribs, two livers, a dual cardiovascular system and several organs that I don't know the name of but have no analogous in human biology. They also tend to be smarter, stronger, more resilient and possessing heightened senses."

"Like your girlfriend upstairs?" Zoë asked, "I never knew you had a thing for blonds. Which is odd, considering I've seen you go after almost everything else."

"Jenny...our relationship's not like that." Jack shook his head, "I know her father; use to travel with him, but he wasn't around much when she was young, so I took it upon myself to help her find her way. Somewhere along the line she became the little sister I never had. But I'll never see her father as anything but what he is."

"And what is that?" Simon asked, "I want to know just what kind of people you're entrusting my sisters well-being to."

"Remember how I told you about the first time I died? The enemy I was fighting, they had a name for Jenny's dad, dating back from the dawn of their civilisation." Jack shuddered at the memory, "They called him _'The Oncoming Storm_', and it was years before I found out just why. That's what I meant about the Angel and the Demon: you can't always tell them apart, as one can be just as bad as the other."

"You said before that if she was the demon, you'd have to kill her." Kaylee stood hugging herself in the hatchway, torn between her fear and the need to know if her friend was okay.

"I don't think that's the case." Jack gave her a reassuringly smile, "You get a feel for these things, after a while. River... is still a good person."

"That I can vouch for." Jenny appeared on the stairs leading to the upper level, "She's a Gallifreyan, but it's almost like she's a blank slate."

"Explain." Simon asked, equal parts confused and worried.

"My knowledge of my people, their history and culture, has gaps in it." Jenny wrecked her brains for the right words, "I have some genetic memory thanks to the way I was born, but I'm just a regular Gallifreyan when all is said and done. River has a lot more built-in knowledge, but lacks the experience or training to use it. Between us we'd probably equal one normal Gallifreyan, but not a full Time Lord. If I had to guess, I'd say she hasn't regenerated before; I think she's on her first incarnation."

"Incan-what-not?" Jayne asked, confused my all the long words and upset that he'd missed the closest thing to a proper shoot out in months.

"My, _our_, people have a way or sort of cheating death." Jenny explained, "We can regenerate our bodies into a new form; same mind, same memories, but a new face, voice, and often, a new personality. It's not something to be undertaken lightly; we can only do it twelve times. Mine...seems to work a little differently, but that's a whole other, and very complicated, story."

Simon and Jayne started to talk at once, making it impossible to understand what wither was trying to say.

"_Bai-tuo, an-jing-eedyen!_" River stood behind Jenny, her tone of voice inviting no argument, "She's right. They're both right. I don't know who or what I am, but until I do it would be best for all of you if I left."

"Mei-Mei!" Simon walked over to her, "You can't just leave..."

"I have to, Simon." River smiled warmly as she embraced him, "It's my turn to protect you. To protect everyone." She turned to face Jenny, "I'm ready."

"Right." The blond nodded, then turned to face Jack, "Well, at least you haven't forgotten how to show a girl a good time. Leave it to you of all people to uncover a missing Time Lord."

"It's a gift." Jack hugged her, "You look after her, and yourself: it's not a safe 'verse."

"Two untrained Time Lords in a stolen Torchwood gunship? What could possibly go wrong?" Jenny laughed, "I hid your ship, by the way. I'll put it back before we leave."

"_Ai-yah tyen-ah_..." Mal rolled his eyes, "Just look after River, okay? She's part of my crew."

"She's more than that." Inara punched him in the shoulder, "She's family."

"Trust me, the 'verse won't know what hit it." River smiled, "Goodbye. I'll be back, some day."

Jenny pressed a control on her belt, and the two young women were enveloped in a bright flash of light, and were gone. Mal looked like he was about to say something, but a grinding, scraping sound filled the air, emanating from the cargo bay.

"Oh, _juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan!_" Jack's eyes narrowed, "Leave this to me, and say nothing about what just happened here."

The others followed him into the cargo bay, and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw a large, blue box standing in the middle of the room. A door on the side opened, and a smartly dressed man stepped out, a confused look on his face.

"Jack?" The stranger looked confused, "I picked up a beacon..."

"Doctor." Harkness smiled, then punched the other man in the face as hard as he could.

**To Be Continued...**

_Bi-tuo, an-jing-eedyen_ = We will enjoy your silence now  
_Mei-Mei_ = Little sister  
_Ai-yah. Tyen-ah_ = Merciless Hell  
_Juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan_ = this is a happy development


	8. Distant Thunder

_Yes, it's been a while, but I found it very hard to get the ending just right_

_With thanks to Tabi for beta-reading_

_There are hints of the events of season 5 of _Doctor Who_,_

_but no actual spoilers that I can see_

_To the best of my knowledge the term "Time Lord" is non gender-specific,_

_but I apologise in advance if I'm wrong_

**The Sleeper Awakens**

**Part 8: ****Distant Thunder**

Jack woke with a start, his entire body aching with the promise of bruises to follow, while his head felt like someone had shoved a pickaxe through his skull. Looking around, he discovered that he was in the small infirmary, his jacket draped over the chair by the door. He got to his feel slowly and somewhat shakily, his head spinning like mad, and recovered his coat before making his way back out into the cargo bay.

The TARDIS was still standing where he had last seen it, while the Doctor was sitting on a crate, playing with a brightly coloured yo-yo.

"I haven't been knocked out in a fight for centuries." Jack wince as he lowered himself onto the Mule, his body already starting to heal, but still evidently unhappy about what it had been put through, "What exactly did you do to me?

"Venusian Aikido." The Doctor looked somewhat apologetic, "Sorry about that; did kind of get a little carried away." He looked Jack in the eye, "How long has it been?"

"Not long enough." Came the stern reply, "The beacon wasn't meant for you; you're not the only one out there with that kind of technology, you know."

"I don't know what's happened between us, but I do know a Class 9 Distress Call when I pick one up." The Time Lord responded, "It's not the kind of thing you set off on a whim. What happened?"

"I needed some help with something, and it's all I had to hand." Jack gave his best poker-face, "Nothing you need worrying about."

"You're lying to me, and that alone is enough to get me interested." There was a buzzing as the Doctor scanned the room with his sonic-screwdriver, "I'm picking up faint traces of..." He paused, his eyes not believing what the probe was telling him, "No, that can't be right."

"She's not a Time Lord; she's a confused young woman who doesn't need _you_ in her life, getting her involved in things she's not ready for." Jack's voice was cold and sharp, "I called in a favour and had her taken somewhere safe."

"How old was I, the last time we met?" The Doctor asked, outwardly surprisingly calm given the circumstances, but there was a tranquil fury behind his eyes, "Because evidently _something_ has happened, something in your _past_ and my _future_."

"Spoilers." Jack shook his head in warning, "You were on your next regeneration, which based on the way you look now, can't be that far off." There was a pause, "This is one of the things I hate about time-travel; you end up hating people for things they haven't done yet."

"Yet there is a Time Lord out there," The Doctor jumped to his feet, waving one arm around to take in the whole universe, "Untrained, unprepared, and alone."

"No, not alone." Jack shook his head, "There are still have some people I trust."

"Who?" The Doctored asked mockingly, "Who could you possibly trust with something like this?"

"I don't know, perhaps a certain Spacefleet captain I met a while back; she knew a lot about you, as a matter of fact." There was an unmistakeable glimmer in Jack's eye, "Does the name Dorothy Gale McShane ring any bells?"

"_Ace_? _You_ know _Ace_?" The Doctor blinked, all the myriad of possible scenarios running through his brain, all at once, followed by just what his somewhat volatile former companion might get up to with a young, untested Time Lord in tow, and his face became somewhat pale, "Runtse de fwotzoo, ching baoyo wuomun..."

"Hey, she's calmed down a lot." Jack couldn't help but laugh, "She hardly ever carries around flaks of Nitro-9 any more."

"So this untrained and potentially dangerous Time Lord you found is safe, or at least the closest thing to safe we're likely to get, but that's only half the question." The Doctor stood, his demeanour shifting back to deadly serious, "That doesn't explain just how she even got here in the first place."

"That's a _very_ good point." Jack looked around, a glint in his eye, "In fact, I think I know where we can find just the people to ask..."

* * *

"We're clear of the gravity well; nothing on the scanner's that could even come close to catching us." Jenny sat at the _Asimov's_ controls, a pair of tinted glasses pulled down over her eyes to reduce the glair from the controls, and looked across at River, who was sat in the co-pilots seat with an identical pair of glasses, "It's a hundred and six parsecs to Earth, we've got a full tank of fuel, half a pack of jelly-babies, it's always dark in space, and we're wearing sunglasses."

"Hit it!" River gestured forward with one finger, a contented smile on her face; this was going to be _so_ much fun!

* * *

The _Mauvais Loup_ say high up on the edge of a cliff face, like a gigantic metallic bird of prey surveying it's aerie. The senior Operative stood beside one of the landing struts, desperately trying to work out just how to explain what had happened to his superiors in a way that would at least earn him a quick and painless death. He was even more concerned over his partner's fate; over the years they had been working together, he had started to care for her in a way he was most unaccustomed to. There was nothing sexual about it, far from it, in fact, but she was the one constant in his life, the one person he had come to trust a rely on without question or reservation. In return, she had become somewhat reliant on him to reign in some of her more aggressive and at times self-destructive tendencies. While her unusual mental problems meant that she was unable to exercise any control on her own part, she was aware that it might be a good idea at times.

He was so deep in thought, in fact, that he almost didn't notice Jack stepping out of the tree line and stride confidently towards the Strike Cruiser as if he was taking a walk in the park. The Operative recovered quickly, drawing his side-arm and signalling for the crew to stand by for trouble.

"Relax, big guy; I'm unarmed." Jack held his hands out to show that his holster was empty, "I think it's time I had a little word with your bosses. And I mean the Organ Grinder, not the Monkey."

"I think that can be arranged." The Operative drew a pair of hand-restraints and tossed them over, "Let's go for a little ride, shall we?"

* * *

"You sure Jack knows what he's doing?" Mal asked as he watched the _Mauvais Loup_ climb above the distant mountains, engines glowing brightly as it burned hard for orbit.

"He's been in tighter spots." The Doctor shook his head, holding out his Sonic Screwdriver, which was emitting a steady bleep, "And it's the only way I'm going to get to the bottom of this in the time I had."

"Funny," Mal smirked, "I would have thought that time was something you had an abundance of?"

"I have an appointment to keep with an Ood named Sigma." The Time Lord looked almost pained, "And I can't be late."

* * *

The members of the Special Security Council were not accustom to being summoned without due notice, least of all in the middle of the night, and without being told why. Despite this, they remained civil with one another as they took their seats and awaited the arrival of their returned prisoner. The heavy doors opened and Jack shuffled in, his legs bound by heavy shackles that where attached to the belt and cuffs he wore, his usual blue uniform replaced by a bright orange jumpsuit intended to make it harder for him to vanish into a crowd. Most people in his position would have been cowed if not outright terrified, but he maintained a cocky little smile, the kind that indicated that he knew a secret and wasn't telling.

"Well now, this is a nice little place you've got here." He looked around the room, the walls lost in shadows, "We've got to me, what, two kilometres underground? Three?"

"That's enough." the chairman leant forward, still little more than a imposing silhouette, "I was told you were willing to tell us what we wanted to know about your immortality."

"Yeah, I lied." Jack flexed his arms and the chains holding him fell to the ground as a deep, grinding noise echoed around the chamber, "Just needed to know where exactly here is so a friend of mine could pop buy to say hello."

The Council members stood, calling for security and a thousand other things as the TARDIS finally materialised behind their prisoner, the door opening and allow the Doctor to step out.

"Now then." He looked around, rubbing his hands, "I have some questions for you."

"We are not in the habit of giving answers." The chairman sat back, "But in your case, we'll make an exception, Time Lord."

"Good; if you know who and what I am, that means you know what I can do, which should speed things up a little." The Doctor nodded, thrusting his hands into his pockets, "The girl, River Tam: where did she come from?"

"She was brought to this system from outside by a woman who no name, but who carried with her the mark of your people." The shadowy figurer recanted, "Our predecessors did not ask questions, but simply followed the request to keep her safe."

"I'd hardly call cutting open her head and rummaging around inside her brain 'keeping her safe'!" the Time Lord snapped back, his eyes burning with righteous fury and indignation, his voice cold enough to freeze hell itself, "If one of my people brought her here, you must have known that, one day, they'd come back for her."

"Our ancestors may have chosen to isolate themselves here, but we still hear things from the outside." Another Councillor spoke up, "Word eventually reached us that the war your people had been fighting had ended, with no victor, and we were told, no survivors."

"Yeah, I like to keep to myself as much as I can." The Doctor did his best to sound convincing.

"And we were left with what many would consider a god on our hands." The speaker continued, ignoring the interruption as best they could, "Faced with an uncertain future, the decision was made, after much debate, to learn all we could about the individual in question..."

"River." Jack spoke up, his voice cool and calm, "Her name is River Tam."

"A name we gave her." The chairman pointed out, "No matter what you think of us, Captain Harkness, we are not evil, and we do not hurt people for entertainment. We would very much like things to be different, but that facts remain that Miss Tam was a potential Pandora's Box. You have evidently spent time with one of her people, you know what they are capable of, even on worlds more technologically advanced then ours."

"Yes." The former Time Agent nodded, "Yes I am..."

"Then you can well imagine what havoc she could have wreaked if she set her mind to it." The faceless shadow continued, "We did what we felt was in the best interest of every man, woman and child in this system, and if forced to make the same decision again, we would, because someone has to be willing to make the hard decisions. Would I have preferred there was another way? Of cause I do. But at the time there was not. Had we known about your true nature, and capabilities, we would have most likely approached you with a mind towards taking her somewhere else, somewhere safer."

"You can justify what you did as much as you like, but you still crossed a line." The Doctor warned, his body almost radiating cold fury, "Be glad that I have more pressing matters to attend to, or I would find a way to express my displeasure to you fully." His eyes moved about the room, as if he could see into the very souls of those present, "But remember this; I am now aware of this system and what its people are capable of. Expect to see me again, _very_ soon." He turned to his companion, "Let's go."

"Be seeing you." Jack shot the council members a quick salute, then stepped into the TARDIS, which faded from sight with the same deep, grinding that had heralded its arrival.

"That went better than expected." Jack lent against one of the support struts that surrounded the control console, "If you want to just drop me back at my ship..."

"I'm sorry." The Doctor looked at him, his face transformed to one of deep regret, "What ever I did, what ever I will do that made you so angry, I'm sorry." He offered a hand, "And thank you for helping with this; there aren't that many people I can trust these days."

"There are more than you think." Jack shook the offered hand, "Say hi to infinity for me."

"It's a big space-time continuum, but something tells me we've not seen the last of each-other." The Doctor smiled, "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

"How long do you think it's going to take for life to get back to normal around here?" Zoë asked as _Serenity_ came down to rest at a small space-port on Beaumonde. "Or at least, as close to 'normal' as we ever get?"

"Well, I guess that depends on how long it takes Kaylee to get Simon to stop fretting about his not-so-little sister." Mal smirked as he shut down the engines and stood up from the pilots seat, stretching to work out the kinks that had built up in his back, "And given I just saw her leaving Inara's shuttle with a hand fully of very skimpy clothing, that's probably not very long."

"I'm just glad we have a legitimate job this time, even if it is transporting some historian to Persephone." The first mate countered as she led the way down to the cargo bay, "Feels nice to have a job where there's only a slim possibility of people shooting at us for once."

"Doesn't it just?" Mal smiled as he pressed the controls to open the outer hatch.

The sound of gunfire filled the air, and Zoë pushed him out of the way as a stray bullet ricochet off the edge of the hatch. Drawing their side-arms, they glanced out to see what had, just moments before been a typically busy but peaceful dockyard had turned into a minor war-zone, with multiple factions fighting it out, regardless of any bystanders. There was a blur of movement, and a tall, blond-haired woman with a satchel and backpack barrelled through the open hatch, colliding with Mal and sending the two of them tumbling into the cargo bay even as Zoë closed and dogged the hatch. Looking around, she saw her captain laying on top of the stranger, a shocked expression on his face.

"Captain Reynolds, I presume?" The woman looked up at Mal with what could only be described as a predatory smile, "Professor River Song. I believe you're expecting me..."

**The End**

_Yes, I am an utter bastard; I make no apologies for this fact_

_Runtse de fwotzoo, ching baoyo wuomun...- Oh merciful Buddha protect us..._


End file.
